Dec 122020
 
 December 12, 2020  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Laura Gilpin The Rio Grande Yields Its Surplus to the Sea 1947

 

UK Scientists Identify Drugs That May Help Severe COVID Cases (G.)
AstraZeneca To Collaborate With Russia’s Sputnik V On COVID19 Vaccine (RT)
FDA Authorizes Pfizer’s Coronavirus Vaccine For Emergency Use (JTN)
More Than Half Of New York’s Restaurants Are In Danger Of Closing (Eater)
Gov. Cuomo Suspends Indoor Dining In New York City (Fox)
US Supreme Court Rejects Texas Challenge To Election (JTN)
Sometimes Life Really is Like a Bad Dream (Kunstler)
Media, Big Tech Hunter Biden Laptop Story Not A Bug, But A Feature (Malic)
The YouTube Ban Is Un-American, Wrong, and Will Backfire (Taibbi)
Pandemic Exposes Global Fault Lines And How Australia Rose Above Them (SMH)
CBO: Medicare for All Could Cover Everyone for $650 Billion Less Per Year (CD)
Email To Hunter Biden Raises Fresh Questions About His Tax Dealings (NBC)
£350,000 House Taken Off Market After Banksy Paints Mural On It (ArtN)

 

 

 

 

Promising. But I would focus on drugs that prevent infection. Ivermectin.

UK Scientists Identify Drugs That May Help Severe COVID Cases (G.)

The research, by the global Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care (GenOMICC) consortium, compared the DNA of 2,244 critically ill Covid patients from 208 UK intensive care units with the genetic make-up of healthy individuals in a control group. The analysis revealed key differences in five genes, named IFNAR2, TYK2, OAS1, DPP9 and CCR2, which partially explained why the sick patients became critically ill. Having identified the troublesome genes, the team was able to predict what drug treatments were likely to help. One drug that holds promise for future Covid treatment is a rheumatoid arthritis medicine called baricitinib. This reduces the activity of TYK2, which the research suggests will help reduce dangerous levels of inflammation in the lungs. Another is an antibody-based medicine that blocks CCR2 and is in clinical trials for psoriasis.

Beyond calming down the immune system, drugs may help invigorate the body’s ability to fight the virus. Some compounds are known to boost the activity of Ifnar2 and are likely to protect people from serious infections by mimicking proteins released by the immune system to fight viruses. However, these would probably need to be given early on to have a substantial impact, the scientists said. “This is a wonderful breakthrough, really, in understanding what causes the severe disease,” said Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London and a co-author on the study. The findings have been shared with groups around the world who are running clinical trials to assess whether drugs that are already in use for other conditions can help save patients with severe Covid-19 disease.

Baillie said that drugs highlighted by the research should now become the top priority for inclusion in clinical trials. “Making those choices really matters,” he said. “If we choose the right intervention to try next in clinical trials then we’ll find out that it works sooner and that could save tens of thousands of lives.” The study is published in Nature. People with Covid-19 tend to develop symptoms as the virus multiplies in their body, but those who die often succumb to excessive lung inflammation which is driven by the immune system. Doctors running Oxford University’s Recovery trial discovered in the summer that the cheap steroid dexamethasone slashed deaths among patients needing supplemental oxygen by up to a third, by damping down the immune system.

But more drugs are needed to help patients who do not respond to the steroid, Baillie said. “Two-thirds of them are still dying even treated with dexamethasone, so there’s a long way to go in preventing that inflammation, and we really urgently need new targets,” he said.

Read more …

“It remains to be seen how the Western media will cover the news that the UK’s flagship formula is turning to the East in a bid to improve its efficacy.”

AstraZeneca To Collaborate With Russia’s Sputnik V On COVID19 Vaccine (RT)

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced a partnership with the team behind the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to explore the potential of combining its own experimental formula with the pioneering Russian product. The agreement, revealed on Friday morning, came after the Russian scientists took to Twitter to propose that AstraZeneca try the combination. They said it was worth experimenting with the model preferred by Moscow researchers and using two different types of injection, rather than relying on the same one twice, as AstraZeneca has done previously. In a statement to the press, the British company unveiled “a clinical trial programme to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a combination of AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Sputnik V, developed by the Russian Gamaleya Research institute.”

They added that “combinations of different Covid-19 vaccines may be an important step in generating wider protection through a stronger immune response and better accessibility.” Responding to the news, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which financed the Gamaleya Institute’s research, wrote that it was “an example of Russia’s proactive approach: it has not only created one of the world’s most effective vaccines to date against the coronavirus, but is ready to share Sputnik V vectors with those willing to produce vaccines using the two-vector technology.” “This unique example of cooperation between scientists from different countries in jointly fighting coronavirus will play a decisive role in achieving a final victory over the pandemic globally,” Kirill Dmitriev, the fund’s CEO added, saying that Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is already saving people’s lives in Russia today through a large-scale vaccination programme.

“The decision by AstraZeneca to carry out clinical trials using one of two vectors of Sputnik V in order to increase its own vaccine’s efficacy is an important step towards uniting efforts in the fight against the pandemic.” [..] The UK media has previously drawn criticism for its coverage of Sputnik V. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that it had been “rushed out to wary Russians,” while remaining far more positive about the start of immunizations in the country using US pharma giant Pfizer’s vaccine. It remains to be seen how the Western media will cover the news that the UK’s flagship formula is turning to the East in a bid to improve its efficacy.

Read more …

Warp speed approval. But more research needs to be done on vitamin D?

FDA Authorizes Pfizer’s Coronavirus Vaccine For Emergency Use (JTN)

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and authorized it for emergency use in the United States. It is the first vaccine to be approved for use in the U.S., and it followed an FDA advisory committee’s endorsement of the shot for people age 16 and older. The vaccine was found to be 95% effective, with only mild side effects. Earlier Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar had said that people could be receiving the vaccine as early as next Monday. It was previously approved for use in the United Kingdom and Canada. President Trump announced the approval on Twitter, thanking all the scientists and medical professionals who participated in the Operation Warp Speed project that gave rise to the fastest vaccine development in history.

Read more …

Remember yesterday’s quote:

“..communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted.”

More Than Half Of New York’s Restaurants Are In Danger Of Closing (Eater)

Across the country, restaurants have been decimated by the pandemic. But according to a new survey conducted by the New York State Restaurant Association, in partnership with the National Restaurant Association, New York restaurants are hurting more from the economic crisis in comparison to the industry nationwide. According to the survey — which polled 6,000 restaurant operators, including 238 in New York, over the last two weeks of November – 54 percent of NY restauranteurs say it is likely that they will close in the next six months if another federal relief package does not come through, compared to 37 percent nationwide. Nearly 60 percent of NY operators say they are considering going into hibernation until the pandemic is over, compared to 36 percent nationwide.


The operating landscape has been extremely tough for NYC restaurateurs throughout the pandemic. Restaurants in the city are currently operating at 25 percent indoor capacity with a 10 p.m. nightly curfew, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo has warned that indoor dining could be completely banned starting next week. Overall, the National Restaurant Association estimates that one in six restaurants across the country have already permanently shuttered due to the economic crisis amid the pandemic. If the estimate is accurate, that would mean that 8,333 restaurants, including 4,500 establishments in NYC, have permanently shut down so far, according to the New York State Restaurant Association. However, the true number of restaurant closures during the pandemic may not be fully known for years.

Read more …

Warped logic:

“Just 1.43% of cases were traced to bars and restaurants. Cuomo said he opted to shutter indoor dining despite the relatively low proportion of cases because it was an area where officials “can actually make a difference..”

Gov. Cuomo Suspends Indoor Dining In New York City (Fox)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday announced that indoor dining would be shut down again in New York City, even as the state released contract-tracing data which showed bars and restaurants accounted for just 1.43% of COVID-19 cases in the three months ending in November. “Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday,” Cuomo announced, citing an increase in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. “Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk,” he said. “Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.” Cuomo released a detailed breakdown of sources of COVID-19 exposure during a press briefing on Friday. The contact-tracing data was derived from a statewide analysis of 46,000 COVID-19 cases from September through November.

Private household and social gatherings were responsible for 73.84% of the cases statewide, while health care delivery accounted for 7.81% of cases and higher education accounted for slight more than 2%. Just 1.43% of cases were traced to bars and restaurants. Cuomo said he opted to shutter indoor dining despite the relatively low proportion of cases because it was an area where officials “can actually make a difference” in reducing COVID-19’s spread. But the decision drew immediate criticism from NYC restaurant groups, who have warned for months that Cuomo’s restrictions would cripple the industry. “While public health and safety must be paramount, Governor Cuomo’s announcement to once again shut down indoor dining in New York City is at odds with the State’s own data that’s been presented as driving these decisions, and it will be the last straw for countless more restaurants and jobs,” the NYC Hospitality Alliance said in a statement.

New York City was one of the hardest-hit areas of the country by the virus, and saw strict lockdowns that shuttered businesses, schools and restaurants. But in recent months the city has been taking baby-step attempts at reopening, with limited indoor dining and a few days of in-person schooling a week at some of the city’s public schools. New York City restaurants, which make up a key pillar of the city’s economy, were permitted to resume indoor dining at 25% capacity on Sept. 30 after months of being shut down, while schools have partially reopened this week after being shut down at the end of November.

Read more …

The sides are growing further apart, as the inevitable process continues. Curious. The 18 AGs who signed with Texas are now accused of sedition.

US Supreme Court Rejects Texas Challenge To Election (JTN)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday evening rejected the state of Texas’ challenge to the 2020 election results in four battleground states, extinguishing one of the last remaining hopes for President Trump’s campaign to reverse Joe Biden’s lead in those states. “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution,” the justices ruled. “Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.” Justice Samuel Alito filed a dissenting statement, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. “In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction,” Alito wrote. “…I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.”

Read more …

“..yet another seditious conspiracy among the swamplings..”

Sometimes Life Really is Like a Bad Dream (Kunstler)

If you were President DJ Trump, would you suspect that the CIA might be playing dangerous games with you (and by extension, the nation)? Are you aware that China has a 75 percent investment stake in the holding company that now owns Dominion? Are there grounds to suppose that China somehow interfered in the election? With assistance from an eager Democratic Party and the CIA?Would Mr. Trump, of all people, let such a thing stand? Especially considering the evidence that the putative “winner” of the election, Joe Biden, the kid from Scranton, PA, was up to his eyeballs, with the rest of his family, in Chinese funny-money? (Not to mention money from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, and other lands?)

Note: information about this evidence gleaned from Hunter Biden’s forgotten laptop was deliberately suppressed in October by the major newspapers and cable news stations, with help from Facebook, Twitter, and Google, along with a claque of “fifty former and current intel officials” led John Brennan, who denounced the reports from The New York Post in a public letter as “Russian disinformation” — yet another seditious conspiracy among the swamplings. Are you aware that in the weeks since the election there have been unusual movements of US military aircraft around the country, including C-130 “Hercules” troop carrier planes? And that the navy has two carrier groups out along the Pacific Coast and three strung along the Atlantic coast? That’s what I hear. Remember, the president cleaned house at the top of the Pentagon this fall, and probably not for nothing.

Sounds like preparation for something… some extraordinary executive action to prevent the national security risk known as Joe Biden from being sworn-in as president — in the absence of anything else in a strictly constitutional way that would keep that from happening, like a Supreme Court decision that would order the rare passing on of the disputed 2020 election to the House of Representatives for resolution, with a strong statistical likelihood that the body would re-elect Mr. Trump. These are the sorts of things I imagine the Supreme Court justices might be palavering about and weighing over their sherry in the comfortable back room of their august clubhouse. There is, of course, the likelihood that such a momentous decision to send the vote to the House would provoke a violent, batshit crazy response from the Democratic Party’s street warriors, BLM and Antifa — thus the C-130 flights perhaps deploying troops around the country. This time, expect the Black Blocs to get their asses kicked, and swiftly. Expect also a mind-blowing raft of arrests of political celebrities on charges like treason. Does it sound like a bad dream? Yeah, kind of does. But there it is.

Read more …

“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action,” as James Bond author Ian Fleming famously wrote. What would the 1600th time be?”

Media, Big Tech Hunter Biden Laptop Story Not A Bug, But A Feature (Malic)

For the past four years, the mainstream media has pushed the baseless ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy theory with absolute impunity, because it catered to the narrative by the Democrats about why they lost the 2016 election and served to delegitimize Trump. Every anonymous accusation, from the Steele Dossier and “Russian bounties” in Afghanistan to the Atlantic smear piece about Trump insulting US troops, was treated as gospel truth. Meanwhile, any attempt by the president to push back was denounced as an “attack” on free press. Yet these very same paladins of “our democracy” cheered when the New York Post was censored by Twitter, in an actual attack on free speech.

Never mind that the paper was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton – whom Democrats now worship as some sort of hero, because of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical retcon of history – there was zero collegial solidarity on display. Less than that, even: you had Jake Tapper of CNN “helpfully” advising the Post to delete their “offending” tweet in order to “end the whole thing [in] 15 seconds.” Another CNN megastar, Christiane Amanpour, had once infamously attacked Trump for “delegitimizing the press” and insisted that “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” But when it came to the Hunter Biden story, Amanpour was perfectly happy to let the New York Post rot in Big Tech jail.

Asked by a Republican guest why she wasn’t actually doing journalism when it came to the Biden laptop, Amanpour indignantly responded “we’re not going to do your work for you.” The Freudian slip suggested Amanpour and CNN were busy doing someone else’s work – and it should be obvious at this point who that is. If you’re still expecting an apology, explanation of soul-searching from the Big Tech and mainstream media, you’re either terminally naive or simply not paying attention. Look at how they’re covering the Hunter Biden story, now that they have no choice. The documents were “made public – but went largely unnoticed” prior to the election, says the Daily Beast, that most mainstream of tabloids.

Notice the passive voice, as if the documents didn’t go “unnoticed” only by their readers, because the Beast and its fellow-travelers deliberately refused to notice them. Mind you, the suppression of the Hunter Biden story is just the most blatant example of media misbehavior. The partisan slant, selective reporting and “fact-checking,” and downright lies by omission are legion at this point. “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action,” as James Bond author Ian Fleming famously wrote. What would the 1600th time be? Now consider that these are the very same media and Big Tech who declared Biden won the election fair and square, while dealing with any claims otherwise in the exact same manner as they did with the Hunter laptop story: label as “disinformation,” facetiously “fact-check” or censor outright.

They apparently believe they can dictate what Americans are allowed to say or think, and even determine reality itself. They believe they can get away with it because most people, even Republicans whining about how this is unfair, continue to implicitly accept this arrangement. After all, it’s one of those“forms to which they are accustomed.” I wouldn’t count on that being the state of affairs much longer, though. There appears to be a growing realization among Trump supporters that “if only the truth is told, everything will sort itself out” is a trope of 1980s Hollywood, and that the axis of mainstream media and Silicon Valley has no ethics beyond power. The end justifies the means, and the only morality is who/whom wields it. What happens to America if this realization reaches critical mass is anybody’s guess. God willing, there won’t be blood. Either way, the Axis of Deceit will have only itself to blame. Newton’s Third Law is as implacable in politics as it is in physics; the longer you trespass against reality, the harder it will push back.

Read more …

“..it will start to make sense that Trump voters in Guy Fawkes masks are now roaming the continent like buffalo.”

The YouTube Ban Is Un-American, Wrong, and Will Backfire (Taibbi)

Start with the headline: Supporting the 2020 U.S. Election. YouTube in its company blog can’t even say, “Banning Election Conspiracy Theories.” They have to employ the Orwellian language of politicians — Healthy Forests, Clear Skies, “Supported” Elections — because Google and YouTube are now political actors, who can’t speak plainly any more than a drunk can walk in a straight line. The company wrote Wednesday: “Yesterday was the safe-harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election… For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors.”

This announcement came down at roughly the same time Hunter Biden was announcing that his “tax affairs” were under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware. Part of that investigation concerned whether or not he had violated tax and money laundering laws in, as CNN put it, “foreign countries, principally China.” Information suggestive of money-laundering and tax issues in China and other countries was in the cache of emails reported in the New York Post story blocked by Twitter and Facebook. [..] How important was that Hunter Biden story? That’s debatable, but the fact that tech companies blocked it, and professional journalists gleefully lied about it, has a direct bearing on YouTube’s decision now to bar Trumpist freakouts over the election results.

If you want a population of people to stop thinking an election was stolen from them, it’s hard to think of a worse method than ordering a news blackout after it’s just been demonstrated that the last major blackout was a fraud. Close your eyes and imagine what would have happened if Facebook and Google had banned 9/11 Truth on the advice of intelligence officials in the Bush years, and it will start to make sense that Trump voters in Guy Fawkes masks are now roaming the continent like buffalo.

Read more …

“America will emerge from this coronavirus to discover what its national security experts already know. It has lost its power advantage over China.”

Pandemic Exposes Global Fault Lines And How Australia Rose Above Them (SMH)

Instead of the official projection of a worst-case scenario of 150,000 dead, Australia has suffered 908 deaths in the pandemic to date. Every country, every state faced the same fateful moment of awesome responsibility and awful choice. The pandemic struck the countries of the world like an avenging angel, wreaking havoc on the unready and the uncaring, the slothful and the prideful, and re-ordered the world. After an uncertain start, Australia ultimately made the right choices. Its leaders, yes, but also its people. The pandemic was a severe test of leadership, and of nation-state capability, but also of social cohesion and public culture. The whole of the people had to accept some personal inconvenience for the common good. In successful countries they did; in failed ones they did not.

And the countries that met the public health test had a much better chance of meeting the economic test. Australia’s responses have elevated it into a small elite of competent countries. “Our system has performed impressively and that puts a spring in your step and makes other countries interested in you,” says the director of the Lowy Institute, Michael Fullilove. “And that’s a positive. The prestige of smaller, well governed countries has risen, mainly in our part of the world – Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea, Australia.” The most dramatic effects have been in the biggest powers. “Nations cohere and flourish on the belief that their institutions can foresee calamity, arrest its impact and restore stability,” Henry Kissinger said in April. “When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, many countries’ institutions will be perceived as having failed.”

One of the foremost, shockingly, is the United States itself. The virus exposed its divided political system as not just an entertaining foible but as a deep national liability. Political division paralysed policy. In many countries politics is regarded as a sport, a game. In a crisis, we now learn, politics literally is a matter of life and death for the people and of national destiny for the country. Even today, nine months on, the US cannot agree to stop the needless mass death nor agree on fiscal policy. With the daily death toll outstripping the 9/11 count, the US Congress remains deadlocked in negotiations for a second economic stimulus. It negotiates, sometimes month to month, sometimes week to week, the funding to “keep the government open”. The asinine has become the norm.

The US President is surrounded by men with guns for his protection. But they cannot defend against bovine stupidity and political obduracy. The President caught the virus. Donald Trump bears responsibility for his negligence. The pandemic spelt the end of his presidency. But he is the inheritor of America’s deepening crisis of overpoliticisation, not its author. America will emerge from this coronavirus to discover what its national security experts already know. It has lost its power advantage over China. They are not equal in every way, but China is now America’s peer. And its rival. The US is a much diminished power.

Read more …

Problem solved?!

CBO: Medicare for All Could Cover Everyone for $650 Billion Less Per Year (CD)

The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released a report examining the costs associated with universal healthcare proposals that are based on Medicare’s fee-for-service program and found that implementing a single-payer health insurance program in the United States would not only guarantee coverage for every person in the country but would also reduce overall healthcare spending nationwide. In the words of researcher Matt Bruenig—founder and president of the progressive think tank People’s Policy Project who called the CBO’s working paper (pdf) on the topic “more exhaustive than any other recent study on the subject”—the new analysis shows that administrative costs under a single-payer healthcare system “will be lower than what even the most rabid Medicare for All supporters have traditionally claimed.”

According to Bruenig, “Modeling the cost of a single-payer program is relatively straightforward. You begin with the status quo healthcare system and then make educated guesses about the following questions: • How many more units of healthcare services will be demanded and supplied when price barriers are removed? • How much more efficient will health insurance administration be after the enrollment and payment systems are radically simplified? • How much money will be saved by reducing the payment rates for healthcare providers and drug companies? In its analysis, the CBO looked at several distinct single-payer designs and determined that four such systems—fully implemented by 2030—would save anywhere from $42 billion to $743 billion that year alone.

Bruenig explained that the CBO option that most closely resembles current Medicare for All proposals is the one based on low payment rates and low cost sharing, which would generate $650 billion in savings in 2030. If one were to add long-term support and services to that option, as many current Medicare for All proposals do, savings would fall to about $300 billion, he noted.

Read more …

First they all bury the story, and now even NBC is after Hunter? ¿Qué pasa?

Email To Hunter Biden Raises Fresh Questions About His Tax Dealings (NBC)

Hunter Biden’s former business partner sent him an email in 2017 saying he did not disclose on his tax returns $400,000 in income from the Ukrainian natural gas company where he sat on the board, according to a copy of the email obtained by NBC News. The message from Eric Schwerin, then president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, says Hunter Biden would need to “amend” his 2014 returns to reflect the “unreported” income, according to the copy of the email. “In 2014 you joined the Burisma board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported Burisma income,” says the email dated Jan. 16, 2017. The email goes on to note that Hunter Biden, who is now the subject of a federal tax probe, netted more than $1.2 million for the year.


The earnings include the $400,000 from Burisma as well as income from Rosemont Seneca Advisors and a legal firm. The email was made available by Rudy Giuliani’s attorney Robert Costello. Costello has said he was given a copy of one of Hunter Biden’s hard drives from the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware. NBC News did not have access to the full drive. It is not known what, if any, action Hunter Biden took in response to the email. Federal prosecutors in Delaware are scrutinizing Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China as part of a tax probe that began in 2018, according to a source familiar with the inquiry. There’s no indication that his work for the Burisma national gas company is part of the investigation, but the email obtained by NBC News raises fresh questions about Hunter Biden’s tax affairs.

Read more …

Was this the steepest street in Britain?

£350,000 House Taken Off Market After Banksy Paints Mural On It (ArtN)

What do you do when your two-bed semi detached house that you are selling for £345,000 becomes the site of a world-famous work of art overnight? That is the conundrum now facing the Makin family whose Bristol home was adorned with a Banksy mural in the early hours of Thursday morning. Alex Makin, whose mother owns the house, tells The Art Newspaper the family is taking the property off the market while it considers its next steps. “The main thing is to try and protect the work because it’s such an iconic piece—a) because it’s Banksy and b) because of the year, it’s Covid-related,” Makin says of the work, which shows an older woman sneezing with such force her dentures have been catapulted out of her mouth. Within hours of the work being painted, Makin had the mural covered with a Perspex sheet.


He adds: “We’re not really sure what we’re going to do at the moment. It would be an amazing thing to keep in the family, but we also want to make sure it is properly protected. It’s been a fairly tough year for my mum, so this feels like a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.” Banksy’s pieces have been known to double the price of a property, while one art market specialist valued this latest piece at £3m-£5m in The Sun newspaper. However, Robert Pain, the client director of Bristol estate agents NEXA, offers a more cautionary valuation. “It’s a conundrum, though a wonderful conundrum to have: everyone wants a Banksy on their wall but does it alter what the bricks and mortar are worth?” he asks. “Ultimately, is it a work of art on brick, potentially worth a million. If so, do you remove it and spend £60,000 rebuilding the wall?”

Read more …

 

 

We try to run the Automatic Earth on donations. Since ad revenue has collapsed, you are now not just a reader, but an integral part of the process that builds this site.

Click at the top of the sidebars for Paypal and Patreon donations. Thank you for your support.

 

 

 

 

Street corner in Athens.

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime, election time, all the time. Click at the top of the sidebars to donate with Paypal and Patreon.

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle December 12 2020

Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #66737

    Laura Gilpin The Rio Grande Yields Its Surplus to the Sea 1947   • UK Scientists Identify Drugs That May Help Severe COVID Cases (G.) • AstraZene
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 12 2020]

    #66738
    WES
    Participant

    American’s only hope of saving their republic is EO #13848.

    The courts will not lift a finger to save the republic. They are actively working to lend legal legitimacy and cover for ending the republic.

    Neither of the uniparty’s two sides of the same coin, Democrats or Republicans will lift a finger to save the republic. They are both actively working to end the republic.

    Playing by the rules will not save the republic.

    Enemies of the republic are playing by the “end justifies the means” rule.

    Only force by the US military can save the republic now.

    #66739
    WES
    Participant

    Raul:

    How fitting this photo is.

    The Rio Grande emptying into the sea could also serve as a metafor for the last days of a dying republic.

    #66740
    WES
    Participant

    I am reminded of JFK saying, before the CIA killed him, that the CIA should be broken into a thousand pieces and scattered by the wind.

    If the US republic is to be saved, this must happen.

    #66741
    zerosum
    Participant

    Is Kunstler dreaming?

    Sometimes Life Really is Like a Bad Dream


    • Sometimes Life Really is Like a Bad Dream (Kunstler)
    ———
    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/509410-media-hunter-joe-biden/
    Nebojsa Malic
    11 Dec, 2020
    “Big Tech censored the Biden corruption story. The media called it Russian disinformation. All to protect Joe Biden in the election,” tweeted House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), in a good distillation of the argument making the rounds. There’s just one tiny problem with it: so what?

    They only care about power and control. The end justify the means—this ain’t CNNs fault
    —–

    #66742
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    With the Hunter Biden cases increasingly making it through to the mainstream, it looks like the DNC is gearing up to cut old Joe loose.

    #66744
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “Media, Big Tech Hunter Biden Laptop Story Not A Bug, But A Feature (Malic)”

    Boy, did this article resonate with me. What does it say about our system when one must go to RT in order to find out what’s actually going on? I’m reminded of the stories an old friend used to tell me about his life in communist Czechoslovakia, where people would have antennas hidden in their attics pointed toward western countries. They new that the party media organs only published lies, so they were forced to break the law and risk imprisonment in order to quench their thirst for knowledge. This is the slippery slope on which we find ourselves. Now that censorship is in full swing, laws outlawing dissent from the party line will follow close behind.

    Does anyone here still have any illusions as to the efficacy of elections? I know I don’t. Neither do I have any faith in the legacy media. That was lost years ago, my faith in elections more recently.

    “CBO: Medicare for All Could Cover Everyone for $650 Billion Less Per Year (CD)”

    Medicare for all under the current profit-driven system would play out financially like the final scene from Thelma and Louise. Like everything else in this country, the incentives are misplaced. Every link in the chain would need to be restructured and the re-incentivized. Who is going to take that on? Who is going to volunteer to stop sucking on their personal money tit? Medical universities? Hospital cartels? Big Pharma? Big Agra? McDonalds? Pizza Hut? See the problem?

    #66745
    Noirette
    Participant

    First they all bury the story, and now even NBC is after Hunter? ¿Qué pasa?

    The original NY Post story was about extraordinary, blatant, corruption, illicit use of influence / power for staggering sums, by the ‘son of’ with the nod from the ‘Big Guy. (Joe Biden.) Banana Republics pale in comparison with their in-groupy money churning. The story included illegal and ugly looking (crack pipe) habitual drug use, as well as hints to put it mildly of inappropriate sexual behavior (not prostitutes etc. I prefer not to go there because it sends ppl hysterical.)

    So now all this (the last was the most damaging and absolutely HAS to be covered up) will be reduced to tax evasion, not paying tax on what were bribes (sums lowered for sure) but will be passed off as ‘legit’ earnings (that is what one pays tax on, right?) and it will all drag on for a while and then Hunter will have to pay ‘back taxes’ plus ‘penalties’ or what not, not familiar with the US system.

    So the Dems / Bidens will be able to argue that Hunter made some stupid financial errors (was at a bad time of his life, though his divorce can’t be mentioned either, it is hair-raising, the testimony I mean) anyone can make dumb mistakes and he will pay his dues … See! All the other accusations were baseless, ridiculous inventions by Trumpers, haters, racists!

    That is the plan imho. Could it fail? Doubtful. Yet, Age of Uncertainty – volatility, startling events, etc.

    #66746
    Rototillerman
    Participant

    WES, funny you should mention JFK and the CIA… I just started listening to an excellent podcast that has a five episode deep dive on that very topic. The podcast is called “Death Is Just Around the Corner,” I recommend it.

    #66747
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Ha just like timmy geithner, who forgot to pay his taxes also.

    #66748
    Mr. House
    Participant

    You will not find justice within the system we live in. Its been so perverted by those who now run it, you’ll just waste energy (which is becoming more and more valuable these days). As lies continue to run thinner and thinner, the grip on society will be tightened. The first tastes of censorship came after the 2016 election with propornot and so forth (the election of trump was them losing their grip). To avoid another four years of trump and worrying that all the wrong that has been done the past 40 years may come out, they’ve tightened their grip even more this year. How can someone be universally hated for something they haven’t done? While in Germany in 2016 for a wedding with a friend, my friend who went to the wedding (part of the PMC, wasn’t political at all, though thats changed now and not for the better) stated the wedding was terrible because all the Germans did the entire time was pester him about Trump and how we can not elect him. So co conspirators go world wide. We should thank Trump, for shining a light and forcing those who are forcing an agenda on us out into the light. We were suspicious for many years and those suspicions have been proven correct. Change will only come from outside the system.

    #66749
    Mr. House
    Participant

    The fraud still works, as we’ve seen this year. But it will continue to lose potency as time wears on, just like QE. Soon the fraud will be replaced with outright force, are you ready for that? Will you continue to believe what you believe even with threats of physical violence leveled against you?

    #66750
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Because the fraud loses potency, it must become larger and larger and more complicated with each new injection. Again, like QE. Do you see where i’m going with this line of thinking?

    #66751
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Every day when I read TAE and the comments, I am heartened to know that there are thinking people out there beyond my partner and I who are digging through media chaff to figure out what is *really* going on, and thoughtfully responding.

    Today, I want to share something that I found uplifting — The City of Phoenix’s current Climate Action Plan. https://www.phoenix.gov/oep/climate

    The US federal government is largely ignoring climate issues. Cities grapple with it “on the ground.” It gives me hope to live in a city that is pledging to uphold the Paris Climate Accords, and making plans to do so. The plans are practical — and even for those who doubt man-made climate change — and wise. Yes, we need to manage the city’s waste, we need to manage water use and sourcing, increasing electric trains will also ease road congestion, and adding tree canopies will help reduce “the urban heat island effect” that plagues the city. Switching to LED bulbs for street lamps isn’t just “more green” — it is saving the city money by reducing it’s electrical bill.

    Is the plan comprehensive enough to meet climate goals in 2050? Oh, probably not. More goals will need to be made — and, more importantly, met. Today, it is heartening to know that instead of putting their collective heads in the sand, the people in my city’s government are at least looking up and forward and addressing the problem.

    Perfect, no. Practical? Yes. It is a reasonable starting place.

    #66752
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Funny how Brexit has almost run as long as the Trump administration. Wonder if they’ll just cancel that too. Remember all those articles our “betters” were printing after Trump and Brexit about how democracy may not be that great. They always leave you little bread crumbs, devious really, because if you put them together and try to tell people, you just crazy.

    #66753
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Do we live on the same planet?

    #66754
    Mr. House
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-blocks-users-liking-replying-trump-tweets-president-rages-over-scotus-barr-rino

    Why wasn’t Russiagate ever censored?

    They’ve been forced out of the shadows.

    #66755
    Mr. House
    Participant

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/bill-gates-makes-bleak-prediction-23152406

    Shouldn’t this be censored, i mean he’s not a doctor………….

    #66756
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Haha he’s made a number of “correct guesses” with regards to covid, yeah the asshole wargamed it back in 2019. That’s why he’s not censored. Where did c-19 come from again? Have we figured that out yet?

    #66757
    straightwalker
    Participant

    @Maxwell Quest

    Agreed on elections and media.
    I’ve been dragging myself, kicking and screaming like a little boy, to this acceptance. The judicial system’s refusal to look at the evidence (see Sydney Powell’s attachments) in an open and impartial manner is the last straw. Truth, whatever it is concerning the election, lost to Power. Getting Trump out of the White House was more important than investigating and salvaging the integrity of our elections, the cornerstone of a democracy.
    I do not think we will come back from this; it is our turn to slide from a civil democracy to strong arm rule. Increasing censorship is obvious and inevitable. Artists and progressives will be driven underground. Mr. House said, “Change will only come from outside the system.” I agree.
    Phoenix Voice lists helpful changes under way in her city. Excellent. Local positive change is still possible (and may well outlive the systemic crash ahead). This is where we should focus. There isn’t much point in trying to change the big picture. Anyone who threatens radical change will be eliminated. Ask Julian Assange.
    My advice is to keep your head down, think small, work toward practical achievements, tell the truth, and ride out the upheavals. It will be difficult, but we can share the trip. Thanks to all commenters!

    #66758
    zerosum
    Participant

    Justice?

    https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-politics-business-ukraine-subpoenas-b5245760245d5dee3e011f0df5e1868e
    Hunter Biden subpoena seeks info on Burisma, other entities
    By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER
    During the election, of course, Hunter was completely off limits – with a virtual press blackout on the subject, and President Trump receiving a sharp rebuke from debate moderator Chris Wallace for bringing it up.

    A subpoena seeking documents from Hunter Biden asked for information related to more than two dozen entities, including Ukraine gas company Burisma, according to a person familiar with a Justice Department tax investigation of President-elect Joe Biden’s son.

    The breadth of the subpoena, issued Tuesday, underscores the wide-angle lens prosecutors are taking as they examine the younger Biden’s finances and international business ventures.

    Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma in particular have long dogged the policy work and political aspirations of his father, Joe Biden, now the president-elect of the United States. It’s unclear whether Hunter Biden’s work at the Ukrainian company is a central part of the federal investigation or whether prosecutors are simply seeking information about all his sources of income in recent years.

    We’re sure Kamala Harris is genuinely concerned over the outcome of this investigation and hopes it doesn’t result in Joe Biden’s unceremonious exit from the teleprompter scene.

    #66759
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    @straightwalker

    Well said. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy for over a dozen years or so trying to make sense of the world. Attempting to understand national policies, globalism, alliances, propaganda, social control systems, money flows, etc.

    But at the same time, I’ve also put just as much energy into building community, getting to know neighbors, volunteering, healing family relationships, building friendships, etc. Like you, knowing that there was little I could do to influence big picture issues, other than free myself from their illusions and control as much as possible, but at the local level I could have an immediate and meaningful impact on the health and happiness of individuals in my little circle. I believe that even the Buddhists teach that there is no need to venture to the other side of the globe when there is work to do right in your own home and in your own neighborhood.

    #66760
    WES
    Participant

    Slow Joe probably doesn’t even remember he was elected so Harris sending him off to an old folks home will be easy.

    #66761
    TonyPrep
    Participant

    PhoenixVoice,

    Yes, it’s not enough but at least that city is having a go and apparently making some progress towards their goals. If all cities did something similar, it may at least buy us some time to come up with a more effective plan.

    We really need to figure out a completely different way of living that doesn’t rely on the rape of nature. Phoenix’s plan is a very long way from that but at least a start.

    #66762
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Good Riddance 2020.

    It must be reemphasized that the neo-feudal Western nations sole purpose is the facilitation of increased corporate profits not the protection of their citizens lives. Neoliberalism and globalization make a planned effective response to the coronavirus pandemic impossible; in particular in the USA, UK, Belgium and Sweden. Only Asian and South Pacific nations with functional governments and public health systems are controlling the virus.

    After oligarchs re-seized power in the 1980 Reagan/Thatcher revolt, state institutions were closed to cut taxes and community and charity hospitals were turned into profit centers. Closing borders to international flights became impossible. A conscious Presidential decision was made to ignore CDC and pass authority to 50 states even though continuous transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus was observed within the USA.

    Testing is a debacle. Public Health principals are ignored. Haphazard and half-ass lockdowns were implemented by localities to keep their hospitals from overflowing with COVID-19 patients. Now it is too late and triage is being implemented in the third wave hot spots. Small businesses shut down, but there is no plan to fight the virus except with for-profit vaccines that may or may not work. Intentionally, billionaires got wealthier. The Dow Jones passed 30,000.

    The Supreme Court has decided, Joe Biden will be the 46th President. The Status Quo won. Dr. Anthony Fauci is responsible for the failed HIV and Coronavirus government responses but he wasn’t fired but selected to be the new President’s Medical Advisor. He is doing exactly what the health and insurance industry want; extracting more money from patients, not curing them. Continued negligence is built in. In a failed nation; the losers, the starving, the evicted, the families with sick and dead, are being given only one recourse; “Liberty or Death”.

    #66763
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Dr. Anthony Fauci is responsible for the failed HIV and Coronavirus government responses but he wasn’t fired but selected to be the new President’s Medical Advisor. He is doing exactly what the health and insurance industry want; extracting more money from patients, not curing them. Continued negligence is built in. In a failed nation; the losers, the starving, the evicted, the families with sick and dead, are being given only one recourse; “Death”.

    There, fixed it for you…
    I’ll second good riddance 2020…

    #66765
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Good Riddance 2020.

    Maybe, just maybe, the devil we know is better than the one we don’t…
    2021? Not looking good from this POV…

    In fact, 2021 is looking to be degrees worse than 2020…for us unwashed…

Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.